Memory Recall
by Numb3rsfan
Summary: After losing his memory in a horrible boating accident, Charlie is found by a widow who thinks he is her son. Don and his team must solve one of their toughest cases without Charlie, who unbeknowest to them is right in the thick of things.
1. Chapter 1

**NUMB3RS**

**TITLE: MEMORY RECALL**

**RATING: PG-13**

**DISCLAIMER: CBS, PARAMOUNT, CHERYL HEUTON AND NICOLAS FALACCI OWN AND OPERATE NUMB3RS. NO COPYWRITE VIOLATION WAS INTENDED, AND NO PROFIT HAS BEEN MADE IN THE MAKING OF THIS STORY.**

**SUMMARY: AFTER LOSING HIS MEMORY IN A HORRIBLE BOATING ACCIDENT, CHARLIE IS FOUND BY A WIDOW WHO THINKS HE IS HER SON. DON AND HIS TEAM MUST SOLVE ONE OF THEIR TOUGHEST CASES WITHOUT CHARLIE, WHO UNBEKNOWEST TO THEM, IS RIGHT IN THE THICK OF THINGS.**

Chapter One:

It was a gorgeous day in California. The birds were chirping as the sun shone over the city.

One lone boat left the Osage dock and headed out towards a small island off in the distance.

The old wood of the small boat creaked as the three passangers got settled to wait.

The three passangers were all math consultants from CalSci, who were taking some time off to go camping on the small island called Chatanooga Island.

Dr. Edward Morris turned to his two friends and collaegues Dr's. Leo Crawford and Charles Eppes, who both set up front, enjoying the morning air.

This was the first time in five months that the three of them could just get away for some male bonding.

Usually every two months the three of them would camp out at Chatanooga, but lately, with their work schedules' and Charlie spending more time with his brother at the FBI office, they hadn't had a chance to get together, but finally their schedule's eased up, and Charlie took some time off,(which he rarely, if ever did) to go camping with his buddies.

"This is my favorite time of day." Leo commented to his two friends as he breathed in the slightly salty air.

"Uh huh, and why is that?" Charlie asked as he looked at his friend questioningly.

Leo chuckled as he replied, "It's the coolest part of the day. In about...one hour and thirty minutes, the tempature will be at least 98 degrees."

Charle nodded his head and smiled slightly.

"Hey Charlie, don't forget that it's you're turn to set up camp!" Edward said from his seat at the moter.

"I remember. How can I forget with you drilling it into me every two hours?" Charlie replied with a grin on his face.

Edward chuckled as he tightened his grip on the controls of the small boat as he made a small course correction.

The waves were a little stronger than usual, which usually meant that a storm was brewing up out in the ocean.

Usually he didn't have to fight the controls this much to keep control over the small boat.

Suddenly the controls locked up completely as smoke began to pour out of the engine!

"Oh crap, this is not good!" Edward said as he lept away from the engine and nearly toppled the boat.

"What the heck..?" Leo began, but he stopped when he saw the smoke.

"The engine's on fire!" Charlie said as he to, leapt up.

"If that gas tank blows we've had it!" Leo said as he looked towards the distant shore of Chatanoog Island.

"We'll never make it to Chatanooga. I don't trust the engine to start up, not with the amount of smoke pouring from it!" Edward informed his friends.

"Looks' like theirs nothing for it but to swim!" Leo said as he prepared to leap off the boat.

"Swim? In this current?" Charlie asked as he directed his friends' glances to the water, which was steadily pulling the boat towards Chatanooga.

"Do we have a choice!" Leo asked his friend.

Charlie looked from his friends, to the smoking engine and back.

Before any of them could make a choice, flames lept out from the engine and set the gas tank on fire!

"We have got to go, like now!" Edward said as he pointed to the water and prepared to leap off.

Charlie saw that he was right and dove off into the water, but not before the boat exploded!

The force of the explosion sent Leo's body into Charlie and forced them both under the surface of the water!

Charlie sunk like a rock and before long he hit the bottom of the small river.

Regaining his footing, Charlie tried to push off towards the surface but his feet got tangled up in some old fishing net.

No amount of tugging, twisting or yanking could pull him free of the old netting.

The air bubbles escaped Charlie's mouth in ernest as his lungs screamed for air.

It seemed to Charlie that it had been forever since he had breathed in a single breath of oxygen!

Finally, Charlie had no choice but to breath in the water, which he immediatly choked on.

Charlie's struggles became more violent, so violent that the old netting finally jerked off of him, but not before Charlie lost conciousness and stopped breathing.

Slowly his body started to float to the surface.

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"Oh my God!" Steven Mayweather said as the small boat exploded.

"What?" Steven's friend, Jonathan Conder asked.

"Did you see that!" Steven asked.

"See what?"

"That boat out there on Chatanooga just blew up!" Steven gasped out.

"What!" Jonathan asked as he strained to see the bits of flaming wreckage on the water.

Turning to Steven, he asked, "Did you see any survivers?"

"No, but we better check just to make sure." Steven replied as he and Jonathan started their speed boat and raced towards the explosion.

-----------------------

Both men searched the wreckage, and quickly found the bodies of Leo and Edward.

"Oh man, this is a bad way to go." Steven said as he covered the dead bodies with a tarp.

"Who were they?" Jonathan asked.

"Two math professers from CalSci. A Edward Morris and a Leo Crawford." Steven said, reading the dead men's ID's.

Jonathan nodded and looked back into the water just in time to see Charlie's ID come floating to the surface.

Swiftly, Jonathan leaned over and snatched it up.

"What'cha got?" Steven asked his friend.

"Another ID. Probably from a third victim of this accident." Jonathan replied.

Steven gazed into the water,searching for another body.

"I don't see anybody else." He said.

"The body's probably at the bottom of the river." Jonathan replied as he flipped open the ID and gazed at the picture of Charlie.

"Who is it?" Steven asked.

"A Dr. Charles Edward Eppes. He's a math professer from CalSci." Jonathan muttered.

"That fits with the other two." Steven said.

"Man, he was so young, still in his twenties..." Jonathan continued, oblivious to his friend.

"Jon, snap out of it. Look, the best thing we can do is call 911, hopefully they can contact the family's of the victims." Steven said.

Jonathan closed his eyes as a single tear slid down his cheek.

In all reality, he didn't know why he was crying for someone he didn't know.

But, deep down in his heart, he knew why.

This man, this Charles Eppes, was the same age his father was when Jonathan's father died in a boating accident.

Jonathan had never forgiven himself for that, he still blamed himself for the accident.

Steven reached into his pocket and withdrew his cellphone.

Flipping open the reciever, he punched in 911, before he put the reciever to his ear.

When the person on the other end picked up, Steven said, "I'd like to report a boating accident."

He went on to tell her what happened and the fact that he had two confirmed dead bodies and a possible third.

The 911 operative assured Steven that local police would be there at the dock to help him when he got back.

Thanking her, Steven hung up and began to bring the boat back to Osage.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Don sat at his desk at the FBI, reading his e-mail.

It was an unusually slow day, which only meant one thing.

That disaster was just around the corner.

Colby came over to him carrying two cups of coffee, each with a small stirring straw in the cup.

"Here. Thought you might need some." Colby said, handing him one of the two cups.

"Thanks." Don said as he took the offered cup.

"Slow day?" Colby asked.

Normally Colby wouldn't ask such an obvious question, but he had just returned from a vacation, so he had been out of the loop.

"Slow week!" Don replied with a sigh of boredom.

Colby was about to say something, but Don's phone beat him to it.

Reaching over, Don grabbed the phone and put it to his ear.

"Eppes." He said into the reciever.

Colby watched Don's face grow pale as he listened to whatever news the person was telling him.

"A..Are you sure it was..?" Don asked whoever he was talking to.

Colby guessed he received some confirmation, because Don was nodding his head slightly.

"Yeah. I'm on my way." Don said as he ended the phone call.

"Bad news?" Colby asked.

Don grabbed his coat off of his chair and turned to Colby.

"Colby, you're with me. I'll explain on the way." Don said as he headed towards the elevator.

Colby immeditaly put down his cup of coffee and followed his boss towards the elevators.

--------------------

"Witnesses reported seeing a small travel boat blow up on the Chatanooga River. So far they have three fatalities. All math professers from CalSci." Don told Colby as he drove towards the Osage docks.

"CalSci? Maybe we should talk to Charlie. See if he knew the victims." Colby suggested.

As he glanced at Don, he could tell that the mention of Charlie's name struck a bad chord with him.

"Charlie was one of the victims." Don said.

"Come again?" Colby asked as he wipped his head around, not beliving what he had heard.

"You heard me, Granger. Two fishermen, a Steven Mayweather and a Jonathan Conder saw the boat blow. They found the bodies of Leo Crawford and Edward Morris. They found Charlie's ID in the water. The local police are preparing to drain the lake." Don said.

Colby didn't know what to say.

Charlie Eppes dead? This was like a nightmare! It just couldn't happen!

Glancing at Don, Colby could see the hurt and anger in Don's eyes as they approached the docks.

He knew that Don was in FBI mode, and the healthy greiving that he was supposed to be doing was not going to happen.

"So they never found the body?" Colby asked.

"Isn't that what I just said?" Don asked.

"Well, like Charlie would say, isn't it a statistical probability that he is still alive?" Colby asked.

"It's highly unlikely though." Don replied.

"Why?" Colby asked.

Don didn't answer however as he pulled to a stop by the docks.

The two fishermen who had found the bodies were still there, talking to authorities.

Swiftly, Don exited the SUV and approached the men.

"Don Eppes, FBI." Don said to the men, as he flashed his ID.

"Eppes? Wasn't that the name on the ID?" Steven asked his friend, Jonathan.

"Charlie was my brother." Don explained curtly.

Jonathan's jaw dropped slightly as his eyes glistened with tears of sympathy.

"Oh man, I'm sorry to hear that." Steven said.

Don's jaw tightened as he faught hard to control his emotions.

He was an FBI agent, and FBI agents, no matter what the circumstances were, were supposed to remain detached so they could function and do their job.

But how could Don do his job when his little brother, the little brother whom he faught so hard to protect, was lying at the bottom of the Chatanooga river?

"What can you tell me?" Don asked as he turned his attention back to the two men.

"Not much, Agent Eppes. We were gettin' ready to launch our boat when we heard somethin' blow up. We looked out and saw pieces of burning wreckage, so we launched our speed boat and went to investigate. We found those two bodies, and you're brother's ID." Steven said.

"But no body?" Don asked in a slightly cold voice.

"No, though there could be many reasons why they can't find it. His lungs could have filled with water so that the body couldn't rise to the surface, or it could still be tangled up in somethin' down there, or it could have been washed down stream...there are a number of possibilities, Agent." Steven said.

"Any possibility that he survived?" Don asked.

Steven and the local policemen shook their heads as they said, "None whatsoever."

-Meanwhile, several miles downstream...-

Sarah Wood sat and cried as she stared at the waters of the Chatanooga River.

Her son, Tyler Wood had run off several months ago after he and his girlfriend broke up after seeing the movie The Phantom of the Opera.

The movie was a hit, but when Tyler's girlfriend started crying over a trivial scene in the movie, Tyler had told her to suck it in, that's when Melissa had slapped him and run off.

Tyler, after beating himself up over his thoughtlessness, went to find her, but couldn't.

Months went by as Tyler slipped into depression and finally ran off.

As the tears slipped down her face, Sarah finally stood and was about to leave when she saw a body flow slowly past her.

The mop of curly, dark hair caught her attention.

It looked so much like her son..but it couldn't be...could it?

Acting quickly, she went out into the water and dragged the body back to the shore.

Flipping the man over, Sarah gasped when the pale, lifeless face was revealed to her.

"T..tyler!" She said with tears in her eyes.

Ripping Charlie's shirt open, she began CPR.

Never once did she concider that Charlie wasn't her son, that he was just some look-alike.

Twelve breaths and some hundred compressions later, Charlie finally took in a breath of his own and caughed up most of the water that was in his lungs.

As he opened his eyes, he blearly saw this golden haired blob, which turned into a woman, kneeling down beside him with tears running down her face.

"W..who are you?" Charlie whispered as he tried to think, to remember anything.

When he drew a blank he shivered with fright, not knowing who he was, where he came from...it was scaring the crap out of him!

Sarah smiled joyful as the tears continued to flow down her face.

"You're my son, Tyler Wood. Where have you been for all these months?" She asked.

"You're my mom?" Charlie asked her as he took his first good look at this woman kneeling down beside him.

"Yes honey, I am." Sarah replied as she ran one hand through Charlie's wet, curly hair.

Charlie's jaw quivered as his emotions finally overtook him.

A strong feeling of loneliness overtook him, and it took him a second to figure out why.

For some reason, Charlie felt that his mother had abandoned him years ago. Why, he couldn't remember.

_'Who cares about the past? I don't, not now since my mother is finally here!'_ Charlie thought as the tears of joy flowed down his face.

"Mom!" He said as he hugged her with all of his strength.

Sarah smiled with joy as she helped Charlie to stand.

"Come with me. Let's go home so you can take a warm shower, get some clean, dry clothes and some rest." She said as she grasped Charlie's hand and led him to her cabin.


	3. Chapter 3

Alan Eppes was sitting in the living room of Charlie's house, reading the morning newspaper.

The television was blaring with the afternoon news, to which Alan wasn't paying attention.

When the screen went blue and the words 'Breaking News' were seen, Alan looked up from his paper and looked at the screen.

The screen changed again to one of Channel 4's ancher's Kevin Ogle.

"Good morning everyone. We have some breaking news involving a boat that unexplainably blew up on the Chatanooga River this morning. For more on the story we go to Cherokee Ballard. Cherokee, what can you tell us?" Kevin asked.

The screen changed to that of a thirty year old lady holding a microphone close to her mouth, while in the backround, FBI SUV's and ambulances could be seen.

"Well Kevin, Sometime this morning three math professers from CalSci were heading over to Chatanooga to spend the night camping. When suddenly their boat exploded. Two fishermen heard the explosion and went to help. It his believed that all three men, a Edward Morris, a Leo Crawford and a Charles Eppes all died from the explosion. The bodies of Mr. Morris and Mr. Crawford were found, but only the ID of Mr. Eppes was found near the wreckage. Our hearts go out to the family of the victims at this hour." Cherokee said.

"Cherokee, what are the police and FBI doing now?" Kevin asked.

Cherokee turned towards the water and pointed at it with her hand.

"Kevin, at this time the FBI is preparing to drain the lake to search for Mr. Eppes body." She said.

"Thank you Cherokee. We'll keep you updated as the information comes in." Kevin said to the viewers as he moved on to another story.

Alan, however, just sat there in shock as he stared at the part of the screen where Charlie's picture had been shown.

_'There has to be some mistake. Charlie can't be dead!'_ Alan thought.

Within moments the phone rang, nearly causing Alan to jump out of his skin!

With trembling hands, Alan lifted the phone off of it's cradle and placed it near his ear.

"Charlie?" He asked, hoping against hope that it would be his youngest son.

"No dad, it's me." Don replied back.

Alan shut his eyes and dropped his head.

He didn't say anything, which prompted Don to continue.

"Did you see the news?" Don asked.

"About Charlie? Yeah I saw it, but, please Donny, tell me that it's some mistake!" Alan begged his eldest son.

From the scene, Don hung his head in shame as he replied, "I'm sorry dad...I can't."

From the other end, Don could hear his father's shuddering sobs as the tears poured down Alan's face.

"How did..how did it happen?" Alan asked.

"We're not sure dad, but I promise you that I will find out!" Don swore.

Alan didn't say anything as he hung up the phone before burying his face in his hands.

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"Here we are." Sarah said as she led Charlie into the cabin and shut the door.

Charlie looked around the place and spotted a picture sitting on the makeshift mantlepiece.

The boy in the picture looked like Charlie, only he was so young!

To Sarah, there weren't any differences between either the picture or Charlie, but in Charlie's eyes he saw suttle differences.

There was a birthmark on the boy's neck which Charlie didn't have. There was a chicken pox scar on the boy's right cheek which Charlie didn't have. Charlie had a scar on his left knee from where he had fallen and had a small stick pierce though his leg. There scar was something that this boy didn't have.

Charlie knew he didn't belong, but he also didn't want to hurt this woman. She obviously cared for Charlie, even if she thought he was someone else.

Turning, Charlie watched as Sarah grabbed some clothes and handed them to him.

"It's you're favorite yellow shirt and some jeans." She explained as Charlie took them.

Looking beyond Charlie, she pointed to a small door on the right.

"That's you're room. Nothing has been changed." She said.

Nodding, Charlie walked to the room, went in and shut the door behind him.

A bed was set in the middle of the room while by the window was a smell dresser.

On the dresser was a lamp, with the base in the likeness of an eagle.

There were pictures on the walls. Pictures of Sarah and her son, and pictures of Tyler with his friends.

One such picture made Charlie gasp.

In this one picture were four boys. Two Charlie didn't recognize, but the last two Charlie recognized.

In the middle was Tyler Wood, and on Tyler's right side, with his arm on Tyler's shoulder was Charlie's brother Don!

Both boy's looked to be 11 or 12, which would put Charlie at around 5 or 6. Back then, Charlie rarely ever spent time with Don. Not because he didn't want to, but because Don had never wanted him around, and always ditched Charlie whenever he saw that Charlie was tailing him.

After a year of that, Charlie had just stayed at home and never went after Don again.

Thinking back, Charlie never remembered Don having a friend named Tyler Wood.

_'Besides, I would have been given hell about him and I being look alikes._' Charlie thought as he slipped out of his wet clothes and got dressed.

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A/N: I know not much happening in this chapter, but things will start to happen in the next chapter.


End file.
